Aubrey, if it makes you feel any better I'm planning on double-dating August and September. With my tendency to be way overdue, we can manage another set of transatlantic twins somehow. All we need to do is persuade Xeowyn to sleep.
Lydia, breathing is critically important. Something about the oxygen, so take it easy, OK?
Mel, I totally know what you mean about the blocks. Skye's favourite toys are duplo, primo and lego (in roughly that order) but she'll use wooden blocks if that's the only thing available. Even at a playgroup with a room full of toys, she heads straight for the construction stuff.
Barcelona, peacefulmommy, everyone should knit. It's the anti-parenting, because you just put one stitch in front of another and you can see that each and every little bit is right. And if it's not, you can have a do-over. (parenting is like spinning- you can work really hard on the individual bits but you can't undo any mistakes, and you don't really get a view of the finished article until you're nearly there.)
Can I have a quick poll? Should, in your opinion, breastfeeding mothers be drinking mulled wine at 10am on a school day a week before Christmas? The family centre put us on the naughty step for it this morning

Helen mum to five and mistress of mess and mayhem, making merry and mischief til the sun goes down.

EVERYONE should be drinking mulled wine at 10 am a week before Christmas. It ought to be mandatory. I am annoyed that my workplace doesn't agree with me, and therefore doesn't have a nice pot of it on the go. I had to make do with tea. Of all the insipid, wishy-washy beverages....

I've never had mulled wine : but I have a feeling I would reeeeaaallly like it. Especially if I were drinking it at 10am a week before x-mas. (Mental Note: Go and find a recipe for some mulled wine and drink it tomorrow at 10 am...) So how do you make your mulled wine, ladies?

And yes, EVERY mother should learn to knit. It gives you something to do whilst sitting on the floor with a child who can't be bothered by your presence, but will whine the moment you stand up...

Aubrey, if it makes you feel any better I'm planning on double-dating August and September. With my tendency to be way overdue, we can manage another set of transatlantic twins somehow.

Can I have a quick poll? Should, in your opinion, breastfeeding mothers be drinking mulled wine at 10am on a school day a week before Christmas? The family centre put us on the naughty step for it this morning

Transatlantic twins Now if only I can manage to ovulate soon AND convince Xeowyn to sleep long enough for us to take advantage of it!! We had a conversation just last night on how we need to get more creative with our BDing time because waiting until Xeowyn is finally sound asleep at night is just not cutting it.

We were perusing the chart gallery over at Fertility Friend, looking at the pregnant charts & checking out how often/when folks were BDing (that ended up pregnant). Many of them did it only once or a few times a month & ended up pg. Then we got to this one chart where the couple had had sex at least once nearly every single day the whole month & DP was all "See?! THAT'S how we need to be doing it! We're just not doing it enough!" I think he was actually serious. OMG men are dorks. (I mean at least 75% of the charts had maybe 5 BD sessions noted, & they got pg, but he sees THAT ONE & is convinced that's how it has to be done. Hahasnort)

To answer your poll: Absolutely.

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Originally Posted by spughy

EVERYONE should be drinking mulled wine at 10 am a week before Christmas. It ought to be mandatory. I am annoyed that my workplace doesn't agree with me, and therefore doesn't have a nice pot of it on the go. I had to make do with tea. Of all the insipid, wishy-washy beverages....

: I'm SO trying to convince myself that tea is just as fabulous a hot beverage as coffee because I want to break my coffee habit, but I feel the same way dammit!! Your post made me lol.

Ahhhhhh, Spughy, thanks for the recipe! OF COURSE, Helen, EVERYONE should drink mulled wine at 10 am on a school day a week before Christmas!

Zjande, sending baby-making vibes your way!!!!!

Oh, and Spughy...don't you dare speak of my beloved tea in such a manner! *gasp*! I sooooooo LOVE tea. Especially a good, strong, spicy (not sweet) chai! None of that Oregon Chai for me...I like the real stuff baby!

im really sorry to hear that.. things will work out..trust in the universe and it will provide! but sometimes its scary and uncertain along the way. ..im working on winters longies if that makes you feel any better at all.

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Once in while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right....

OMG,DiD. Big hugs, and we're thinking of you. Right before Christmas as well, the mean rotten Dickensian pigs.
Spughy, you missed the cloves
Don't diss the tea.

I'm serious about the transatlantic twins. What got me through my weepy day after Skye was sitting at the computer with a calculator, trying to find out the time differences from my side of the water to Zjande's and forget about the house FULL of people and the fact that I really wanted to just curl up in a ball and cry. If I've figured it right, there was about half an hour in it.

Helen mum to five and mistress of mess and mayhem, making merry and mischief til the sun goes down.

I'm sitting here at work just dumbfounded, watching all of his co-workers hear the news one by one like cattle being brought to slaughter. It's awful because the managers keep walking them past me and then they walk past me again to go back to their seats. I hope all of them can find new jobs within the company on a different contract.
I'm 33 weeks pregnant and I so can't deal with this right now. If he doesn't find a new job soon, I *have* to go on maternity leave, it's not like I can just not give birth because it's a bad time, and my leave is totally unpaid.
Totally freaking out.

Sadly, because of my job we don't qualify. If I were to quit my job, the money we would get from welfare would not cover our living expenses either.
And then they would go after DP for the welfare money after he started working again.

Hey mamas, is it too late to jump in? I just recently got started up on MDC since we have our own computer now.. I have a November '05 baby boy named Isaac and would love to meet some other mamas with babes the same age. Let me know if it's too late to jump in.

MmMm mulled wine.. i drank mulled mead at a party last weekend. it was ever so yummy!

so im making a doll. i decided yesterday that i had to and ive been obsessivly working on her since. she is pretty rad. im not using a pattern or anything..just stuff from around the house.. she is pictured in my blog (but im a lot farther along now.. her head is attached and her hair is nealy done)
i have a feeling that she will be a work in progress for a while becaus eim not 100% happy with her body, but i know ngaio will like anything i make for her.. she loves dolls. she keept trying to cuddle the head with no body sayins "oh baby baby"

on baby news.
justin is supposed to go home today..but no word yet of when exactly. he is sleeping now but ive spent all morning snuggling him as much as i can and giving him lot of love to take wth him when he goes.
we will miss him, but im not too attatched which im surprised at..i thought i would be heartbroken.

we have another baby on the way..she is only tiny..born dec9th..6lbs or so at birth. her mom was/is using heroin/methadone so she is on meds now for withdrawl symptoms.she is currently in hospital with the momma and breastfeeding..i almost cried when i was told that.. but she cant be discharged with mom because of her drug issues.hopeflly she will pump and give us milk for baby, but we will see..she wont come till after xmas..the 30th or so because of the withdrawl.they have to slowly ween her off the medication and observe her for a few days. im torn between happy that i will have a newborn in my home but so sad that this momma wants to be with her baby but wont be anymore. its sooo hard.i wish that there was a better sollution than taking her baby away. she will get visits but thats not enough! we were asked to go visit her before she comes so it ont be totally unfamiliar, so ill let you all know more when i see her. its so intense.

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Once in while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right....

Fern
You know we're all here for you if you want to, or need to, talk right? I can't imagine how I'd cope with parenting a newborn knowing how much their mama missed them.
DiD, that sucks. It really, really does.
And to Isaac's mother, whose username I just completely forgot, of course it's not too late- but be warned, November and December seem to have been extremely volatile months for us emotionally. Great name, btw

Helen mum to five and mistress of mess and mayhem, making merry and mischief til the sun goes down.

Fern, that poor baby and mama. Even though it will be hard for them to be separated, I think being safe with you will be so much better for the baby girl.

OK, so I am really upset right now about something my friend is going through. She is pregnant and decided - under duress from her OB, of course - to do the triple screen (or I guess it's called Quad screen now). Her doctor called her yesterday (at work!!) and told her that it's positive and she has a 1 in 68 chance of having a Down Syndrome baby, despite the fact that she has had two nuchal scans and both were totally fine. They can't do a follow-up test until the 29th, and she has to drive SIX hours to the location where the test will be taken. When my friend started asking questions about probabilites and false positive rates, her doctor told her, "You need to stop reading so many books; you are just worrying yourself!" There are many more details of this typical medicalized mismanagement of her pregnancy thus far (for example: they've changed her due date TWICE based on her THREE ultrasounds already) and she's decided that she wants to find another doctor. But I'm just so upset, not only for her, but for the state of maternal care in this country. It's ridiculous! And I'm upset that she's been so distraught the past two days that she hasn't kept any food down and her blood pressure is up. I mean, that's not good for her or the baby. F-ing doctors.

WOW. *Amy*, that's insane! An acquaintance of mine went through a very similar situation. It's absolutely frightening and stressful to have to go through what she did. The doctors and genetic counselors did everything but outright tell her she should abort. They had had a miscarriage less than a year earlier and were 110% willing to accept whatever challenges they were presented with. In the end, they gave birth to a very healthy little girl. Go figure. to your friend for what she is dealing with right now!

Fern: You are such an inspiration, mama! It sucks to know what that mama and babe are going through but they are so lucky to have you to help guide that little one through with love.

Danile: Welcome! I second the fact that our group has been on one big emotional train ride lately! If you can stick it out we are a pretty groovy bunch!

On a lighter note and totally OT: My employer (I nanny) gave me a $50 AmEx gift card and a cute green iPod 4GB Nano today!!! YAAAAAY! I have been really wanting an iPod, so I'm reeeeeeally excited! AND I'm officially off work for the next two weeks. PAID. YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!

*Amy*...OMG!!! I was just peeking in on your blog and WOW! That pic of Brynn is beautiful!!!! I absolutely love it!

Wow, pm, I'm jealous A very happy Christmas to you.
Amy, I get where you're coming from. The more people I talk to about birth experiences down here, the more scared I get. When did a normal physiological occurrence get to be such a freak show?

Helen mum to five and mistress of mess and mayhem, making merry and mischief til the sun goes down.

amy.. thats so upsetting. i get so mad when things like this happen.. its so much fear and negativeity to put on a pregnant momma.. arg. plus.. having a baby with down syndrome is a total blessing..maybe it wouldn't seem so at first, but from personal experience with a brother with downs.. it is not the end of the world, in any sense.. quite the opposite.

Peaceful - thats soo nice! it is such hard work being a caregiver for other peoples kids.. im doing it every day for my daycare kids and for justin till yesterday
i love doing it but i dont feel appreciated.. i feel like they pay me so little for the work i do..then arrive half an hour late to pick them up..or dont send proper clothes so i have to go up o their house to get them and take the=m to the school..or i get sick kids who i have to keep all day even though its not anywhere in my contract to do so : but theyare lovely kids, so i feel bad saying anything to the mom and dad.. but still..4 or 5$ an hour for my job is insane. *sigh*
i dont know if ill be getting an xmas bonus this year

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Once in while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right....

Fern, I hope that $4-5 per hour is per kid? Please say yes? I wish you lived in Victoria and I could pay you more than that to look after Rowan a few hours a day so DH could do more work on his thesis.

Amy, I have a friend who recently went through a whole round of testing, including travelling several hundred kilometres for the final tests, only to find out her baby is perfectly healthy. It was really upsetting for them, especially since their first pregnancy was fraught with problems, she ended up with a c-section for breech, a massive postpartum infection, etc... I think she just really wanted a "normal" pregnancy this time. But I think they elected to have the testing on their own - she is my age so she wouldn't quite fit into the mandatory over-35 test group. Not quite, anyway. (Argh, I know I will fit into that group for my next pregnancy!)

peacefulmommy - that's awesome! I want an iPod!

Not much new here. Rowan is totally sleeping in (on Daddy, on the couch) and my boobie is going to explode soon. She had a really rough start to the night last night - waking up actually crying (very unusual for her) every hour. I think we will see some new teeth soon. (everyone sing... "all i want for christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth... except it's her back teeth we want...)

I feel like I'm so awful to my babysitter now. I brought my kids to her yesterday and Winter is sick and I don't pay her very well but if I paid her $4 an hour per kid I wouldn't be able to afford to live.

no its for both.. but the thing is, like DID says.. they cant afford to pay me more, or so they say.. but both girls come with brand new old navy and gap clothes daily.so i dunno... it wont be forever though..just till te end of january..then if they want me to continue im going to make a few changes.. i could make more working at a coffee shop somewhere and have a break from the kids at the same time but i guess then i'd have to get a babysitter : it doesnt seem like there is any easy answer or way to do things..

sarah: it would be nice, huh?

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Once in while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right....

I think Rowan's being up all night is because she's coming down with another cold. She was very cheerful this morning when she finally woke up (kept popping off while nursing to blow raspberries at me - too cute, but I was late for work!) and when she finished nursing she started to get a runny nose.

WHY WHY WHY are we getting so many colds??? This is the 4th since October. She is breastfed as much as I can manage under the circumstances. I nurse her when she wakes up at night as much as she'll take, in the morning, in the afternoon, before dinner, before bed, and I pump before I go to work so she'll get booby juice during the day. Really, I could not stuff any more breastmilk into that child and she still is getting sick at the drop of a hat. Should I be washing her hands every time she touches something? I just don't get it.